Nibbles of Tidbits, a Food Blog

A few of our most popular recipes were recently noted in this post — Here they’re linked and featured in photographs starting with the Quick Tender Oven Baked Baby Back Ribs.

Have you tried Chipotle’s Barbacoa Beef?  I love it and created a copycat recipe.  It may be the most viewed post on Nibbles of Tidbits — It’s a darn good recipe too.  If you know the flavors, you’ll see.  Our preparation starts by searing the Beef, then on to slow cooking to easily shred.

Though the above photo doessn’t look that appetizing, it’s tasty as all get out topped with Goat Cheese.  It’s another copycat recipe that works — Houston’s Braised Red Cabbage.

Have you ever gone through the hassle of preparing Amish Friendhship Bread?  When I did, I thought it was quite burdensome, but after tasting the finished product, I’d do it over and over again.  It’s one of the best Breads I’ve had — Complex, flavorful, moist and magical.

I didn’t see the pictured Hamburger on Yelp’s Burger Blitz or anywhere else for that matter, but did see others I’ve tried and some I’ll need to try on their “Most Wanted Patties In Town” list.  If you were to eat this monstrosity, you may turn into a Burger, as it probably weighs more than you.  Do you think it’s possible for one to finish it?  Do you think a giant fork would help?  It likely wouldn’t matter, but an extra stomach (or two+) would surely be in order.

Filet Mignon with Cognac Sauce — Each Steak was cooked beautifully by The Turnip Rose Elite Catering.  We recently attended a “Taste of Turnip Rose” at the Grand Newport Plaza and everything was over the top in the best ways possible.  We were almost paralyzed by the quality and perfection of food, style, hospitality, service, detail and coolness.  What an evening!  Will you marry us?  A full report of the event will soon be posted.  Thank you for all.

We stumbled upon the best wedding venues in town — Celebrations and more.

One of the Best Happy Hours in town is at McCormick & Schmick’s Pilsner Room in Irvine.  We’ve now tried almost everything on McCormick’s Happy Hour Menu and the $2.95 full size Cheeseburger and French Fries will always be a must.  It’s filling, cheap and tasty. 

We highlight it and supplement our previous post with Ceviche.  It’s good too, though not as delicious as Mary Sue Milliken’s Ceviche had a couple days prior, but enjoyable in its edible bowl for $4.95.  Their Happy Hour is generally between 4 – 7 PM.  This day we practically killed ourselves trying to make the 7PM cut-off, then learned that HH is all night during Monday Night Football.  Cool, we didn’t need to order everything at 6:55PM.  It seems that Monday is a good day for some things.

We liked the Crow Burger Kitchen, whew.  Pre Nibbles of Tidbits we ate and drank at The Crow Bar and Kitchen in Corona Del Mar and haven’t been back.  Didn’t have the best experience at the time — Food was not as described and we didn’t like their touted Bloody Mary.  We like unique, but tasty too.  We had high hopes for their distinctive menu and may need to give it another try.  We’ll definitely go back to Crow Burger Kitchen for the Green Bean Fries.

It’s a limited menu at Crow Burger Kitchen — Mostly Burgers, matchless Fries and Beer.

We had the Cheeseburger Cheeseburger Cheeseburger, which includes Black Pepper Cheese, Cream Cheese and Goat Cheese.  It’s rich but good and comes on a Wheat English Muffin, but we opted for a Buttermilk Bun.  And a friend previously had the Green Label Burger, which was described as “excellent” – It’s 3 ounces larger than their other Burgers.

All Burger meat is fresh and ground in-house and we love the Fry Sauce selection.

And must also mention that the service at Crow Burger Kitchen was outstanding this day.  We will be sure to try The Crow Bar in CDM again, as they must be doing something right – We’ll just have to find and eat [it] next time.  Caw, caw.

Fancy Smancy or Schmancy who cares, it’s not really a word anyway — This story is most likely played, but it’s still September so the floor is mine.  Available this month only is the Fancy Smancy Steakhouse Burger at Hof’s Hut.  Have you read about it yet?  You can here.

This is our first time purchasing it at the restaurant after having it at the photo shoot.

It was cool to see my name on the menus and table tents as Winner of the Burger Contest.

It’s a splendid tasting Burger too — Hof’s Hut does a great job with it.

Try it before September 30th.

I once lived in the LBC, Belmont Shore to be exact, walking distance from a Hof’s Hut Restaurant & Bakery, now a Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, a new favorite, and I worked across the street from the view above.  Will always have a special place for Long Beach, near most of the remaining Hof’s.  Read about the Burger Contest – Long Beach Post quotes me. 

HH’s 60th Anniversary promotions — Grateful the FSSB Won!

I didn’t order the hit on table tent inserts at Hof’s Hut, but appreciate having one with my name on it.  For the record, my parent’s friends actually asked if they could take it.  I should’ve photographed it instead of scanned it — It’s hard to read, despite its wannabe size progression.  Only 15 more days to get the Fancy Smancy Steakhouse Burger at Hof’s Hut.  Still celebrating…

A BIG THANKS to Hof’s Hut Restaurant & Bakery on this official day – The availability of the Fancy Smancy Steakhouse Burger.  I can’t wait to have it as good as YOU make it!

Be sure to mark your calendar to try the Hof’s Hut Restaurant & Bakery 60th Anniversary Burger scheduled to be available this September.  It’s called the Fancy Smancy Steakhouse Burger and it is damn tasty, if I do say so myself – It’s so tasty in fact, I won a fancy smancy (aka schmancy) Jenn-Air BBQ Grill (below) for creating it.  Thank you Hof’s Hut and Happy Anniversary to such a fine establishment.  See you soon…

Would you want a Grilled Cheese Burger?  It’s a Burger sandwiched between two Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, and it’s currently available at Hof’s Hut Restaurant & Bakery for $9.99, with French Fries or Onion Rings and a whole mini Pie — A good deal for a lot of richness.

We prefer Hof’s Fancy Smancy (mostly Schmancy) Steakhouse Burger.

Pick a Pie.

I still can’t believe I won Hof’s Hut’s Burger Contest — It’s been previously reported here.

And I was invited to its photo shoot where I learned that Burger modeling is a serious job.

Fancy Smancy Steakhouse Burger – A perfect blend of A-1 Steak Sauce and Horseradish Mayonnaise give the Grilled Beef Patty a steakhouse flavor.  Served on a Brioche Bun, it’s extra fancy with Onion Strings, Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Baby Greens and a Tomato Slice.

The Burger was created in honor of Hof’s 60th Anniversary — It was (1) of approximately (300) submissions in their Burger Contest.  They narrowed the competition down to (10) and made them all, and then (5) to ultimately choose mine, which will be available during the month of September at all Hof’s Hut Restaurant locations.  And it’s worth having too.

Me smiling proudly with the Fancy Smancy Steakhouse Burger.

It’s a serious job building a perfect Burger for its modeling debut.

All determining what looks best — Trying to make it look as good as it tastes.

Working with food, angles and lighting — I learned a bit.

Would you want the Burger with French Fries?

Or Onion Rings?

It’s all about the Burger, not me.

Hope to see you at Hof’s Hut Restaurant & Bakery in September.

Try it!

It’s almost time for the Fancy Smancy Steakhouse Burger to make an appearance at Hof’s Hut Restaurant & Bakery.  In celebration of their 60th Anniversary, Hof’s will be featuring the pictured Burger during the month of September.  It won a Burger Contest and I created it, as previously reported here.  I was elated to learn the news.  In addition, I won a BBQ and $100 Gift Card.  More will soon be reported about the Fancy Smancy Steakhouse Burger coming your way – Stay tuned to learn about its ingredients, the Burger’s photo shoot, the BBQ to be delivered next week, Hof’s Bakery and the amazing taste of the Burger.  It really is a winner.

Thanks to all the nice people at Hof’s.

In May we reported about the Hof’s Hut Restaurant & Bakery Burger Contest, linked here.  In addition to posting about it, I entered 5 Burgers in the contest.  The challenge was to create a Burger worthy to become Hof’s 60th Anniversary Burger to be featured during the month of September — Having forgotten about the entries, last week I received a call from a Hof’s Hut VP who informed me that I’d won the Grand Prize in the Burger Contest… It’s my Burger, the Fancy Smancy Steakhouse Burger that’ll be featured at Hof’s in September.  I’m attending its photo shoot tomorrow.  It’s unbelievable and exciting.  Can’t wait to try it – Thanks HH!

Note:  The pictured Burger isn’t it.  More to be reported about the actual soon.

They say it’s not just another spot to grab an ordinary Burger – Bordello meets Burger Bar.

We finally tried one of Twenty Five Degrees raved about Burgers, the Number Three with Mezzo Secco Jack, Green Chilis, Chipotle and Avocado.  Be prepared, it’s pretty spicy.

The Sweet Potato Fries are good, though our batch was slightly overcooked this day.

We like the dark, cozy environment and the prices aren’t bad either.

Enlarge Menu for a better view — We’re going back to try a lot more.

Twenty Five Degrees in Huntington Beach is a cool place.